Friday, November 9, 2007

What's the word people.. 6pm-9pm Opening reception for the Love Movement @ Midtown art Center.. The show has a killer line up.. for real.. if Houston had a Art Team.. this would be the All Star Team..( sort of).. La Branch and Holman Tommorrow!! This show is in with conjuction with the BBoy Ho Down..FREEEEEEE

THIS article from the Houston Free Press by Alex Wukman varies its criticisms wildly from Hazmat sites to cronyism, land grabbing and voter manipulation. Even if you're still pro-rail after reading it you'll know that something has got to give, and maybe someone has got to go. Except for one allusionary paragraph comparing the local ridiculousness to national politics, this could be a a justifiable case of journalistic integrity; here's some highlights:

"...in the five miles between Hillcroft and the University of Houston there are 540 different Hazmat sites that Metro’s construction will possibly affect."

"...when a person gets on a bus or train that is a “boarding”. If you have to transfer, that is another boarding. ...even if the trip takes longer and is less convenient, it is counted as “increased” service."

"...six months after they cut the 68 bus line through third ward because it was too costly, Metro spent $60,000 to convert the entire system map for an IPOD download."

"procurement contracts revealed that in August Metro spent $96, 677.40 on “coffee services.”"

"Metro spent $448,344 for “bus shelter cleaning in downtown”... $136, 305.00 of the expenditure went to a company called “BJ’s Enterprise”, located in Webster, Texas. Several attempts were made to contact anyone from BJ’s Enterprise to discuss the terms of the contract; however the company is not listed in the city of Webster phone book or any phone book in the Houston-Galveston area. They have no website, their only address is a post office box and all mail sent was returned.

"The remaining $312,039 of the cleaning bill was paid out to the Houston Downtown Management District. The Houston Downtown Management District, or HDMD, is a taxing entity whose services are, according to the their website, “financed by assessing all downtown property owners, based upon their value determined by the 2005 certified tax rolls of the Harris County Appraisal District, and by a rate determined annually by the Board.” Also on the HDMD website is a statement that their “primary focus is to leverage public funds with private resources to improve facilities and services.” Taken at face value, these statements would seem to indicate that Metro is paying out over $300,000 for services to an organization that is already collecting public money for performing the same services."

"In 1997 [current METRO CEO] Mr. Wilson agreed to pay the State of New Jersey a $1,200 fine for possible violations of NJDOT’s ethics code and the state’s conflict of interest laws. An audit released that year indicated that one of the firms offering Mr. Wilson a job had received a consulting contract in violation of state purchasing rules, to the end result (as reported in the New York Times) of New Jersey taxpayers being overbilled by some $300,000-- if that figure sounds familiar, it should. It's about how much Metro is paying the Downtown Management District for apparently redundant cleaning services."

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Down at the Sculpture department of University of Houston, the Association of Student Sculptors and the Art History Association present the first Film Night of the semester with a short film by new faculty member Cory Wagner, a performance by Nancy Douthey and Deep Throat on the big screen!

Beer and snacks, good conversation for all! If you are in the U of H art or art history department come out and meet your peers from across campus, and the same goes for you sculptors! Artists from across Houston interested in getting to know some of the young crowd working at the University come out and play!

Thursday, November 8thstarts at 6:30pm at the Sculpture Annex, University of Houstonjust south of the corner of Wheeler and Cullen, next to the bayoucall the Art History Association at 832-724-9464 for more information or directions.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

What common denominator links your diverse raw imagery? Between the abstract digital images that make up the stripe paintings, surveillance photographs for the dot paintings and most recently your Moiré random patterning; what brings you to choose your original subjects?

There is always a common denominator to a body of work, seeing it just depends on how far back you are standing. Each of my investigations is initially based on personal experiences as perceived through transformative technologies. One evolves out of the other and the lineage is quite clear to me.

For example, the stripe paintings began as an effort to paint the blurred images I photographed looking out of moving car windows taken while driving cross country.The Traffic Cam paintings pick up that thread as seen through the surveillance work. The surveillance work came about after seeing images of the London bombers all over the news. Having lived in London and traveled the same tube stops, I felt quite shaken by the events and began the series in response. The Moiré paintings are based solely on technical possibilities I observed while making the stripe paintings; the random dot patterns evolved from early experiments applying drips of paint while working with random color generators. They're all connected.

Skinhead, 2007

Where does the rigidity of your process come from? Does the fabrication of your artwork dictate your expression?

The rigidity of the process comes from the equipment. It can really be quite dangerous, so you have to be necessarily rigorous or the consequences can be severe. I do like the structure of the process. If anything, I see a circular influence between the fabrication and the expression. This framework allows me to examine and understand things in a defined space.

M-0309, 2007

There seems to be parity between what the image was and what it could be. Does technology focus your ambiguity?

The systems were designed to be a transparent process. That was the goal at least, but I think they inevitably have the effect of eroding specifics- which I kind of like. Over time one learns the degree to which erosion and any potential shifting occurs, and the ability to apply it in a deliberate fashion becomes recycled into the process.

Software controlled linear motion machines are a basic tool of much of your work, how do its computer languages and specific limitations help limit alternatives?

All of my work is fundamentally digital in nature. As long as I continue to work in that manner, I really do not feel any constraints. Programming languages really do not constrain, they provide another layer of alternatives. Beyond the programming itself, the process has its own language there is a great deal of expressive latitude once the grammar is understood. Technology provides me with location, specifically and accurately, and the action I execute in a specific event is really what I am interested in- applying paint or what have you.

Do you feel a curatorial element in your artistic practice? By removing your 'hand' from the art making, is your position in relation to painting open to more choices?

Over a body of work a relationship to one’s choices becomes obvious; they narrow the viewer's position regardless of the artist's intent. I do think there is a curatorial element to my practice but it is only over a very narrow horizon. I view my relationship with the work less as a critique and more as champion pushing from the inside.

How do you view the difference between artist and artisan?

The differences are based on economic intent, not on tools or methods.

Given the theoretical lack of authorship in post modernism, in what ways is your personality and demeanor invested in your paintings?

I develop the conceptual framework, select and refine images, determine variables, select colors, mix paint and oversee the technical process. Inevitably these activities reflect my personality and demeanor simply by the choices of which processes and methods I use to make my work. These are not arbitrary inputs; they are the sum of my investment- the reality of the finished work.

Nice to see Deborah Colton Gallery dropping a dime on a full-page Artforum ad for the new Jerry Kearns show Between Heaven and Earth. While the pastiche of pieces like Pumped may be eye-rollingly gratuitous, at least there is a hamburger, big-headed babies or something silly flying through the sky. Kinda reminds me of reading Tom Robbins- silly pop trash. Kearns older work splits the bill between Hockney and Salle blowjobs, so his synthesis of the two is at least "original". Opens November 10th, stop by Summer Street before Addicks moves out and the whole landscape changes!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

"Known mostly for his catalogue of folk music songs that some have described as “psychedelic,” Devendra Banhart is a San Francisco-based artist and musician whose small, fine-line ink drawings combine strange and sometimes beastly human and animal figures, ornamental framing devices, abstract symbols and bits of language to create oddly charming works that defy definition. Intimate and hypnotic, Banhart’s works on paper share affinities to Tantric diagrams and Indian narratives, giving rise to fantastic private worlds."

Coming in the spring, the upcoming local Swap-O-Rama-Rama! Houston artist Mary Keene is currently planning for the swap to take place around Valentines day in Downtown. Sign up for the mailing list to stay posted!

The Young Republic (check out their collaborative blog!) is pleased to announce their 4th annual event "Friendzgiving." Continuing the conceptual idea of art events based on holidays, Friendzgiving is a time for friends, artists, writers and associates from around Texas to come together to cook and share a Thanksgiving dinner. While doing so, participants will make traditional Thanksgiving crafts, decorated pilgrim hats and turkey hands. The event will take place at the joanna Gallery, a gallery in a converted house with a full kitchen.

Friendzgiving dinner will be held on November 15th. The gallery opening on the 17th will display crafts made from the event, including video of the preparation and eating of the dinner. Leftovers will be served.

Each dinner participant has a dish to complete. No participant should spend more than $10 on ingredients.

It is the stated goal of the Young Republic to promote progressive thoughts and artistic expressions, and through the malleability of organizational frameworks in fresh and exciting ways. The conceptual structure of the Young Republic is not entirely dissimilar from the art that it promotes, changing to fit into the same progressive mind frame of the artists it exhibits. All coordinated events are prepared in hopes of creating a forum for the exchange of creative and invigorating discussion through performative events rooted in visual culture and the major fine arts.

Meredith Goldsmith, mass distraction jurior, (second-year resident) received her MA in visual criticism from California College of Arts in 2005 and her BA in art history from California State University at Chico in 2001. She has written articles and reviews for ArtLies, X-tra Magazine, Artweek, Oakland Tribune, Mesh Magazine, Bridge Magazine, Ten by Ten, and Art Papers. She has curated exhibitions at PLAySPACE Gallery, San Francisco.

Rachel Cook is leaving glasstire.com and Kelly Klaasmeyer is the new Articles Editor... Cook will be staying in Texas for the near future and looks to get back to making artwork again. The Houston native has been living in Austin for the past year, and takes the time to keep up with Houston art jetting back and forth down 290. Check out the hornet's nest Rachel stirred up after curating an exhibit in Wichita Falls this summer HERE.

"I spent three years at Glasstire and now I think it is time for someone else to push the site forward." Look out Kelly, them's some big expectations!

Kamakazi Films and Breathing in the Now Productions will be holding a casting call for the philosophical, dark romantic comedy '12 Minutes to Heaven' this Saturday November 10, 2007 from 10 am to 2pm. We are looking for dedicated and creative female actresses between ages 18 to 28 of all races. Please prepare a 1 to 5 minute monologue. There will also be a cold reading from the screenplay. Everyone involved in the production will receive film credit and a DVD for demo purposes. The film will be going to various festivals in 2008.

For more info and a synopsis of the film check out www.myspace.com/eternaltherapy